A permanent record

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Retail therapy...

I have moved my blog to a (hopefully) more permanent position in life, as I haven't been able to log in to my university blog and since I'll eventually leave there anyway, this seemed like a sensible solution! I can't decide whether to fill in the gap since I last wrote (on my Warwick blog) first, or to start with today.

Since today is freshest in my mind, I think I'll go with that! Retail therapy was the order of today; therapy for having a horrible cold, and for missing Antony I suppose. Plus I needed new trainers.
  • Converse All Stars - £34.99
  • Wicked (the novel) - £12.99
  • Unrepeatable DVD (Eddie Izzard) - £9.99 (bargainous)
  • Buying a pair of size 10 jeans for the first time EVER - priceless!
Yes, my new jeans are a size 10 when I have always been a size 12; a very good feeling indeed! Not because I've been desperately trying to lose weight or anything like, I've never had a big problem with the way I look, but having lost weight by being in France and eating differently I feel generally healthy and nice :) Retail therapy certainly works - buying lots of things just for me, just because I wanted to was a lot of fun! I also went to the Palace to say hello while I was in town, it was really good to see everyone (it's always nice to go back somewhere when you've been away - everyone is surprised and pleased to see you and gives you big hugs) although I managed to clash with the end of the show so I felt a bit in the way in the end.

This evening I have been relaxing and nursing my cold; phoned Antony, had a nice meal with mum of pasta (followed by ice-cream bars - more on which theme later) and have showed off my purchases to both her and Tom, who got home a few minutes ago. None of which seems very interesting now that I've written it down, but I'm sure I'll appreciate it at some future point!

Now, what do I need to catch up on from my other blog? The whole of my time in the UK since my holidays started, in fact. Well, I'd better start at the beginning, then, I suppose. (Note to self - don't worry too much about writing day by day and try to summarise general things! Reading back later it will flow better...)
I came back to London first, on the 4th of Feb, and went out to lunch with some family friends on the Sunday. I used to go to dancing classes with the girl whose mother's house it was (where we were having lunch) and we were subjected to an embarassing video of us in a show when we were 7 or 8 (roughly) after lunch! I came out of it quite well, I think, as I looked like I knew what I was doing, and didn't stare out into the audience trying to spot my parents! (unlike several of the other girls) However, I did have a rather strange habit of sucking in my cheeks, presumably on the assumption that it made my face look thinner... (Irritatingly, when I mentioned this habit to one of my friends and my boyfriend, they said I still do it! Damn...)

On the following Tuesday I went up to stay with Antony (and, therefore, Hywel) for the week, both to spend the time with Antony and to go to the Music Centre annual ball on Saturday. I had a really lovely week - Hywel had a bad case of flu from Wednesday to Friday, so at least I had some company during the day while Antony was at work, even if he did complain about feeling rotten all the time! No, it was fun - we watched daytime TV and discussed news stories and drank lots of tea :) I finally met Kel, Hywel's new girlfriend, who is really lovely - I'm surprised I've never met her before since she's a Music Centre girly, but then she did say she never really got into the crowd until this year, so I suppose it makes sense. Anyway, we had fajitas one night, and Antony and I had a film night with popcorn and chocolates, and on the Friday we had curry, played Mariokart, drank red wine, and they taught me to play poker! And yes, I beat them both hollow :) Actually, that Friday was also a shopping day; Antony had taken the day off work, and we went to Leamington to buy things for the ball (his bow tie, for one) and the aforementioned Mariokart!

The ball was really lovely - I wore my new green ball dress, and had my hair very curly (which took me 2 hours to do!) and it was so nice to see all the people I haven't seen since the end of last year. Much wine was drunk, much merriment was had, and I danced as much as I could (although it was VERY hot, so that wasn't really as much as I had hoped to.) Highlights included: our impromptu conga-style march to Is this the way to Amarillo, being asked by at least 3 different people I had never met where my dress was from because it was so beautiful, and sneakily getting in both the MTW and Symphony Orchestra group photos! I sat on a table with some really nice people, including Hywel in his Welsh Kilt! Can't wait for next year's!

Unfortunately on Sunday I realised I had definitely caught a bad cold, possibly from Hywel, (I don't blame him though!) so have been feeling sorry for myself and religiously taking paracetamol every four hours ever since! I have used up more than half a loo roll with blowing my nose (on average every 4 minutes), and my head still feels like it's full of custard (or other such glutinous substance.) Yesterday evening - after receiving a gorgeous rose and box of chocolates (oh yes, chocolate, must remember to go back to that in a second) for Valentine's day from Antony :D - I went to see ETT's production of Hamlet (the company mum works for, and I went by myself, as no-one was able to come with me!), which was excellent. I didn't know the play intimately beforehand, but I knew it enough to really enjoy it, and some of the acting was really superb - notably Ed Stoppard in the title role, who is so charismatic it's untrue, and manages to say lines that have become so cliché without any hint of self-awareness ('To be, or not to be' and 'Alas, poor Yorick' for example.) Thoroughly riveting and very sad! 8 deaths in one play does seem rather a lot... (Just count them!)

Ah yes, the ice-cream/chocolate point. I seem to have more chocolate and sugar than I can comfortably eat at the moment - not that I'm complaining, mind you, I'm just concerned that I'll eat nothing else! - Antony bought me a bar of Galaxy and a box of milk chocolates while I was there (for the film night and just because he went shopping, respectively) and I got some Lindor chocolates free from a shop in Leamington; then yesterday I got another box of chocolates from Antony for Valentine's day (again Lindor, yum) and then today I got two small Galaxy bars free in Borders! I'll explode! Oh, AND when I spoke to dad earlier (he wanted me to set the video up for him because he forgot) he said he was buying me a selection of exciting sweets to take back to Paris from a crazy shop he'd found... I really will go boom. Boom!

Right, that's all for now (mammoth blog entry) - I'm going to attempt to keep this up to date from now on, and hopefully anyone who followed my Warwick blog will follow this one instead once I manage to get my password reset and post a link here! Au revoir... xx

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